Technicalities
by cornwidow
Summary: Joe points out a small technicality that changes Lee and Amanda's lives.


Disclaimer: I have no rights to Scarecrow & Mrs. King or any of its characters.  
  
Background: Christmas break after series end. Jobs and marriage still secret, but wearing thin. I have changed the timing of Ship of Spies to the middle of February instead of January.  
  
Dec. 25th.  
  
Lee couldn't believe how much more at ease he was around Joe this Christmas season. He remembered how uncomfortable he felt around the family last year. This year was so much better. Joe and his wife Carrie were sitting on the couch, Phillip and Jamie sat on the floor, while Dotty and Amanda sat in the two chairs. Lee was sitting on the floor leaning against Amanda's legs. Lee and Carrie were enjoying hearing the stories of the past. Dotty had told a lot of interesting stories about Amanda's childhood, then to stories of Amanda and Joe's early marriage and stories about the boys. Then it came to be the boys turn to tell Carrie and Lee stories about their parents. Lee's ears perked up when he heard Phillip start to tell Carrie about the time that the fed saved them in the gym at school.  
  
Phillip started telling the story of that day, "You should have seen that fed. That bad guy was holding a gun to Jamie and the fed dove over the pommel horse and knocked him down and they started to fight."  
  
"Then Dad ran and knocked the gun away while the prime minister helped us run to mom." Added Jamie  
  
"The fed was so cool, he was punching the guy and they were fighting and rolling all over the place, then the fed jumped on the trampoline and grabbed the climbing rope and swung on it way up in the air, when he swung back he swung into the guy and knocked him down. It was so cool. The bad guy looked pretty beat up, but the fed looked like he hadn't been touched. I don't know if he ever got hit."  
  
During Phillips telling of the tale Jamie looked at Lee and had a revelation. Carrie was ohhing and ahhing about what had happened when Jamie spoke up. "Lee, is that how you remember it happening?"  
  
Lee looked up at Jamie then to Joe and Amanda. Dotty spoke first "What would Lee be doing there? What are you talking about Jamie?"  
  
Jamie just kept looking at Lee with a gleam in his eyes that reminded him of Amanda's eyes when she was challenging him. "Well Lee, are you going to answer my question? Is the way that Phillip described that day, the way that you remember that day?"  
  
Lee looked again at Amanda, seeing the nod that was barely perceptible to anyone but him he cleared his throat and answered. "That is pretty close, but I did have a few bruises, he did get me a couple of times in the ribs."  
  
Dotty, Carrie and Phillip all just stared at Lee with their jaws dropped. Carrie was the first one who collected herself and asked the question that was on the other's minds. "You got hit? I know that you were not the bad guy. Are you telling us that you were the fed that helped Joe out when he came back from Estocia, and that saved Phillip and Jamie?"  
  
"uhmm Yes, that was me."  
  
At Lee's admission Dotty's jaw dropped even more. "You are a federal Agent? Then that means that Amanda. Oh my gosh."  
  
Amanda decided that she needed to do a little damage control. "Mother, we really didn't want you to find out like this. But yes, Lee and I are federal intelligence agents, we work for the Agency. You remember Mr. Melrose, from that security mix up a year ago? He is our boss."  
  
"Oh my gosh" was all that Dotty could say.  
  
"You guys are spies?" Asked Phillip. When Lee and Amanda nodded affirmatively Phillip answered with "That's cool, my mom's a spy"  
  
"Now this is all very much top secret, you can not tell anyone about what you have just learned. Part of how we can be successful is that no one knows what we really do, that is why we have to tell everyone that we work for IFF, a film company." Lee felt the need to add the secrecy disclaimer at the beginning of their explanation, he could tell that Phillip was excited and Lee needed for him to understand that it was a family secret.  
  
Lee and Amanda spent the next hour telling the story of how they met, and answering questions, mostly from the boys. Dotty was uncharacteristically quiet throughout the conversation. Many of the questions Lee and Amanda could not answer because the cases were still classified, but many things they could answer, at least, mostly answer.  
  
Phillip was very interested in every aspect of their jobs. "So do you go undercover to catch the bad guys?"  
  
Lee answered the question with a little bit of laughter. "Yes, sometimes we use our cover of IFF, but there have been times that we have had to take other covers. Amanda has been my secretary, we have been brother and sister, and we have been married, engaged."  
  
"Wow," said Jamie, "Have your covers ever been found out? How far do you have to go to make people believe you?"  
  
"Well" Lee answered, "we actually had to get married once to keep our cover."  
  
"What?!?" shrieked Dotty.  
  
"Mother, we went through the ceremony, but we were not legally married." Amanda tried to consol her mother.  
  
"Amanda is right, it was not a legal wedding. We were undercover on a wedding cruise. We thought that we would have the case solved before we got to San Angelo and had to get married, unfortunately we hadn't caught the bad guys yet." Lee said  
  
"Yeah, I seem to remember a promise from you that we wouldn't have to go through with the wedding." Admonished Amanda. "I also remember that you didn't tell me what our covers were, or that it was even a wedding cruise until I got there."  
  
"Well I was afraid that you would say no, if you knew that we might have to go through with the wedding at the end. I am sorry for that."  
  
"That's ok, you are right, I probably wouldn't have gone with you if I had known."  
  
Joe cleared his throat, reminding Lee and Amanda that they had an audience, "Did you say that you got married in San Angelo?"  
  
"Yes," answered Lee and Amanda simultaneously.  
  
"Well, I hate to be the one to tell you, but if you went through a marriage ceremony in San Angelo, then you are legally married."  
  
"What?" This time it was three voices that spoke at once, Lee, Amanda and Dotty.  
  
"Yes, Amanda, do you remember Steve Cavilo that I used to work with?" Joe continued after Amanda nodded. "About six months ago, he went to San Angelo on a vacation, he saw another coworker of his, they spent some time together, partied a little too much, got drunk and got married. When they got back, they had me look at their marriage license to see if it was legal. They didn't have the right info on theirs either, they even had things missing, like their birth dates. They apparently were so drunk that they could not remember their birth dates or for that matter, their names. I checked into it for them and found out that in San Angelo, it isn't the marriage license that makes the wedding legal. It was the ceremony itself. No matter what is on the license, if you both signed it, even with false names, then you are legally married to each other."  
  
Lee and Amanda looked at each other with shock, they had been married for almost three years and didn't even know it. Lee and Amanda didn't even notice that their family was all talking around them. They just sat there, holding hands staring at each other.  
  
"So this means that Lee is our step dad, cool!" Commented Phillip  
  
"Yeah, can you believe that they are already married, and grandma you have been hinting that they get engaged, little did you know they don't need to."  
  
"Now fellas," interrupted Joe. "Your mom and Lee might not want to stay married, they didn't know that they were getting really married. Let's not start planning the rest of their lives for them."  
  
At that comment, the room got quiet; each person in the room was quietly pondering the information that they all had so recently learned. The silence was broken when Lee turned around to face Amanda, got on one knee and said "Amanda King you are the best, the bravest, the smartest, the most beautiful woman I have ever known."  
  
Amanda smiled as she remembered the words that Lee was speaking. "I love you."  
  
"Then will you remain married to me?"  
  
"Will I stay married to you? Oh yeah I'll stay married to you. We're the luckiest two people on the face of the earth."  
  
"Alright" "It's about time" and "I thought this would never happen" was all that was heard as Lee and Amanda shared a passionate kiss.  
  
"Lee" Interrupted Joe. "I don't think your stepsons need to learn how to do that just yet do you?" As the kiss continued to get steamier.  
  
"Uhm, sorry, I forgot where we were." Answered Lee.  
  
Hugs and congratulations were given all around.  
  
Dotty was the first to bring some reality into the marriage revelation. "So are you just going to tell everyone that you have been married for three years, how are you going to handle this news to everyone else? You can't exactly tell them you were undercover now can you?"  
  
"You are right Dotty" Lee was deep in thought for a few moments "Who is to say that we have to tell anyone about the first wedding, we can have another one, on our anniversary and no one would be the wiser. What do you think Amanda, will you marry me again. In front of our friends and family?"  
  
"Of course I will. I love you Lee."  
  
"I love you too Mrs. Stetson."  
  
"So my dear son in law, when is this anniversary anyway? How much time do I have to plan this wedding, you know we need to get a dress for Amanda, we need flowers, the cake, not to mention the church, oh and someplace for the reception. There is a lot to do you know." Lee was still amazed at how the women in this family could put so much into one breath.  
  
"Actually, I am not sure, I think it was sometime in February." Lee answered  
  
"I know how to find out, just a minute." Called Amanda as she ran upstairs into her bedroom, only to come back minutes later with box filled with small leather journals. "I have kept a dairy since I was small. Let me find the right one. Here we go, I think this is it." Amanda flipped through the small diary pausing every once in a while and smiled."  
  
"What are you smiling at?" Asked Lee as he tried to read over her shoulder.  
  
"Don't even think about it Scarecrow. I still have some secrets you know." Said Amanda smugly.  
  
"Oh really.." Lee had started to reply when Amanda interrupted him  
  
"Here it is February 13th. Oh my gosh. I can't believe that I never noticed that before." Amanda looked at Lee as the both started to laugh. The rest of the room was clueless about the secret joke that Lee and Amanda shared. Only they knew that in a month and a half, they will have married three times on the same date. 


End file.
